Charles Gray (actor)

Charles Gray
Gray as Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice, 1967
Born Donald Marshall Gray
(1928-08-29)29 August 1928
Bournemouth, Hampshire,[1] England, UK
Died 7 March 2000(2000-03-07) (aged 71)
London, England
Cause of death Cancer
Other names Oliver Gray
Occupation Actor
Years active 1957–2000

Charles Gray (29 August 1928 – 7 March 2000) was an English actor[2] who was well known for roles including the arch-villain Blofeld in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever,[3] Dikko Henderson in a previous Bond film You Only Live Twice,[4] Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and as the Criminologist in The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975.[4]

Early life

Gray was born Donald Marshall Gray in Bournemouth, Hampshire,[1] the son of Maude Elizabeth (née Marshall) and Donald Gray, who was a surveyor.[5] Gray attended Bournemouth School alongside Benny Hill, whose school had been evacuated to the same buildings, during the Second World War. Some of his friends remember that his bedroom walls were plastered with pictures of film stars.

Stage career

By his mid-twenties Gray had left his first job as a clerk for an estate agent to become an actor. He began his stage experience at the theatre club next to the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth, where he was a last-minute cast replacement in The Beaux' Stratagem. Gray surprised everyone, including himself, with the quality of his performance.

He moved away from Bournemouth in the late 1950s, but his parents remained at the family home until their deaths.

On becoming a professional actor he had to change his name, as there was already an actor named Donald Gray. He chose Charles Gray partly because Charles was the name of his maternal grandfather, partly because he had a close friend named Charles, and partly because he thought it sounded nice. For his first appearance on Broadway, in the 1961 musical Kean, he went under the name Oliver Gray.

Charles Gray distinguished himself in theatrical roles, in the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London, at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon and at the Old Vic. He received his vocal training at the RSC and became noted for his imposing presence.

Film and television

During the 1960s Gray established himself as a successful character actor and made many appearances on British television. Work in this period included Danger Man, with Patrick McGoohan, and Maigret. Gray also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in the film version of The Entertainer (1960) as a reporter. In 1964 he played murderer Jack Baker in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Bullied Bowler".

His breakthrough year was 1967, when he starred with Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in the Second World War murder-mystery film The Night of the Generals.[2] The following year he played Dikko Henderson, an Australian intelligence officer assigned to their Embassy in Tokyo, in the 1967 Bond film You Only Live Twice. Four years later he appeared as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever,[3] both films starring Sean Connery as Bond.

Gray's most prolific work as an actor was between 1968 and 1979, when he appeared in more than forty major film and television productions. From this period he is perhaps best known for portraying the Criminologist (the narrator) in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a similar character, Judge Oliver Wright, in its 1981 sequel Shock Treatment. This more expansive role is said to be the same character (the Criminologist in The Rocky Horror Picture Show is not named). In 1973 he played Lord Seacroft in the television series The Upper Crusts opposite Margaret Leighton and in 1983 he starred alongside Coral Browne and Alan Bates in the award-winning TV film An Englishman Abroad. In 1985 he starred in an episode of the BBC TV detective series Bergerac, entitled "What Dreams May Come?". Other well-known film work includes The Devil Rides Out, Mosquito Squadron, Cromwell and The Beast Must Die.

In 1991 Gray co-starred with Oliver Tobias in the science-fiction film Firestar - First Contact for Ice International Films.

Later work

Gray portrayed Mycroft Holmes in both the 1976 film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and opposite Jeremy Brett's Sherlock[6] in four episodes of the 1984 Granada Television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In two episodes of the final Brett series, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, he had leading roles as Mycroft, the first because Edward Hardwicke, who played Dr Watson, was busy on another project and the second as a result of Brett's illness.

Other television appearances included roles in Dennis Potter's Blackeyes,[6] The New Statesman, Thriller, Upstairs, Downstairs,[6] Bergerac, Porterhouse Blue plus a range of Shakespearean roles, such as Caesar in Julius Caesar and Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida. He regularly dubbed for Jack Hawkins, in the film Theatre of Blood and others, after Hawkins's larynx was removed to combat throat cancer.[7]

Death

Gray died of cancer on Tuesday 7 March 2000. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, where his ashes remain.

Selected filmography

References

  1. 1 2 Before 1st April 1974 it was in Hampshire
  2. 1 2 "Charles Gray, 71, Cats' Friend, Bond's Enemy". The New York Times. March 10, 2000.
  3. 1 2 Canby, Vincent. "Diamonds Are Forever (1971) A Benign Bond:007 Stars in 'Diamonds Are Forever'". The New York Times.
  4. 1 2 "Charles Gray". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ "Charles Gray Biography (1928-2000)". filmreference.com.
  6. 1 2 3 http://articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/09/news/mn-7137
  7. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/670271.stm
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